Survey of maternal-fetal medicine subspecialists: professional activities, job setting, and satisfaction

We analyzed the job setting, professional activities, and satisfaction of subspecialists in maternal-fetal medicine. A two-page questionnaire was mailed to all members of the Society of Perinatal Obstetricians. The results were analyzed by multiple regression and multivariate analysis. Of 603 questionnaires mailed, 496 (80%) were returned; 70% of all certified maternal-fetal medicine subspecialists responded. The job setting of respondents was university hospital-based faculty in 66%, community hospital-based salaried in 15%, private practice in 10%, and other in 9%. The average percent of professional time devoted to each area was as follows: clinical work, 57% of all professional time; research, 18%; administrative, 15%; and educational, 11%. Time distribution, volume of hysterectomies, and number of peer-review publications were the only significant differences among job settings. For university hospital-based faculty, the time distribution was 50% clinical, 23% research, 16% administrative, and 11% educational. For community hospital-based salaried physicians, it was 63% clinical, 10% research, 16% administrative, and 11% educational; for private practice, it was 84% clinical, 7% research, 5% administrative, and 6% educational. Types of activities of maternal-fetal medicine subspecialists included ultrasound (75% of respondents, mean 436 studies per year), gynecologic procedures (71% of subspecialists, volume of 8.7 hysterectomies per year), genetic procedures (83%; 125 procedures per year), research (87%), recent peer-review publications (80%), grants (40%), and medicolegal reviews (64%). Ninety-five percent had a medical-school faculty appointment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)